Yea mentioned the probable draw in he knockout thread... of course if this were a football World Cup England would manage to somehow cock things up and end up in the half with South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

Originally Posted by HeathDavisSpeed

I got great enjoyment in going to the game and shouting "WHY THE **** ISN'T THIS GAME BEING PLAYED AT THE BASIN?!>!?!?" to reasonably significant cheers from the sparse crowd

Proudly against the bring back Bennett movement since he is injury prone and won't last 5 days.

England could well lose to scotland, who may finally find form
that will put england too in the same draw as the others... haha would be epic.
best 4 playing-off against each other so early in the knockouts.

actually scrap that. we'd have to play england then in the quarters. nah ****

Yep ditto, and certainly its hard to fear the current French side who struggled to dispose of Japan, who we beat by more than 70 points. Regarding the loss against France in 2009, that was our first test of the year and we had a slightly experimental looking side. France on the other hand were far more settled on their combinations, so its a bit difficult to make comparisons. Although to be fair, maybe we'd get a more favourable draw for the rest of the tournament should we lose to France...

Last edited by Somerset; 17-09-2011 at 04:46 AM.
Reason: Actually loss vs France was first test of the year

Yep ditto, and certainly its hard to fear the current French side who struggled to dispose of Japan, who we beat by more than 70 points.

Remember this Irish team struggled to put away the USA. Who knows what the French could do to us. Especially if it's a wet night like it was for the Aussies here.

Great to see the Irish get up and win the match. What an atmosphere it appeared to be at the ground. For O'Driscoll to say it felt like they were playing in Dublin certainly said something for the crowd.

Excelllent performance from the Irish - fully deserved victory as they looked to be the only team that turned up with a game plan and executed it perfectly.

The Australians were embarassing - totally inept performance that smacked of arrogance

Alongside certain players, Deans head should be firmly on the chopping block as the team, for all its talent, has not improved one iota since he's been in charge and his tactics (or lack thereof) are totally bewildering

Why the **** wasnt Polota Nau dragged at half time and allowed to play like an amateur for the whole 80 minutes (let me guess, he needs match fitness )

Why the **** werent changes made when it bacame obvious that whatever it was we were trying to do (and I have no idea what that was) wasnt working

Why did we suddenly resort to short restarts and pathetic chip kicks when the entire Irish game plan was based upon territory in the hope of kicks at goal - they didnt make a clean break for the entire 80 minutes so how the **** were they going to run it back 75 metres?

All in all, this performance was the one we feared (world-beaters one week, hopeless the next) but knew was inevitable. After all, it only being going on for 10 ****ing years

Remember this Irish team struggled to put away the USA. Who knows what the French could do to us. Especially if it's a wet night like it was for the Aussies here.

Great to see the Irish get up and win the match. What an atmosphere it appeared to be at the ground. For O'Driscoll to say it felt like they were playing in Dublin certainly said something for the crowd.

Thats true re. the Ireland vs USA match. Ireland's pre-tournament form had been terrible too (lost four matches on the trot I believe). And after all, France seem to strike when you least expect them to so you never know. I hear the crowd was about 58,000 (in other words just short of a sell-out) which is absolutely fantastic.

The Australian forwards are simply just not up to it. Their tight 5 was outmatched in the set-piece and their back three in the loose. The lack of Pocock and Moore was an issue, but I think missing Moore had more of an impact as he has had a stellar year, is good at the graft and a good and combative runner. I don't think Pocock would have made too much difference at the breakdown given the dominance of the Irish forwards (although, that said, he would certainly have been streaks better than his replacement). A lot of work seems to have gone into the forwards but they seem to crumple against muscular/physical opposition.

It's a pity that Berrick Barnes was out most of the year with injury, but even if he has not had much test play he needs to come back for the USA/Russia games, and then, all going well, play against SA. He has the brains and composure to direct play when things are not going well which Cooper, at the current time, lacks. The Australian mid-field with McCabe/Faingaa also offer little, and Barnes/ACC would offer more on attack and defense.

Deans should really have rung the changes early in the second half, but he has always been reluctant to use the bench throughout his tenure. I can understand that sometimes, but last night, Higginbotham needed to be on earlier as did S Faingaa and maybe Palu (I don't really rate Palu, he is a little reminiscent of Kefu but not really a patch on him). Simmons went alright and should start in the final group games.

But yeah, given the Bok performance against Fiji, I think a QF exit for the Wallabies is on the cards.